The Commentariat -- June 20

Finally got an Open Thread up on Off Times Square.

Michael Scherer of Time writes a calm, incisive & devastating analysis of President Obama's hypocritical Libyan War Powers stance, which flies in the face of Pre-President Obama's stated positions and beliefs. Scherer ends with this joke from Seth Myers, delivered -- in the President's presence, of course -- at the White House Correspondents' dinner:

Who knows if they can beat you in 2012. But I tell you who could definitely beat you, Mr. President: 2008 Barack Obama. You would have loved him. So charismatic; so charming. Was he a little too idealistic? Maybe. But you would have loved him.

** E. J. Dionne: "An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot.... Sometimes the partisan motivation is so clear that if Stephen Colbert reported on what’s transpiring, his audience would assume he was making it up. In Texas, for example, the law allows concealed handgun licenses as identification but not student IDs.... Whether or not these laws can be rolled back, their existence should unleash a great civic campaign akin to the voter-registration drives of the civil rights years. The poor, the young and people of color should get their IDs, flock to the polls and insist on their right to vote in 2012."

Chistina Bellantoni of Roll Call: "Despite their grousing about the administration during the Netroots Nation conference, liberal activists and bloggers are relatively happy with President Barack Obama's performance. A straw poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that 80 percent either approve or strongly approve of the president more than a year before voters head to the polls to decide whether he deserves a second term. The results broke down to 27 percent strongly approving of Obama and 53 percent approving 'somewhat.' Thirteen percent said they 'somewhat disapprove,' and 7 percent strongly disapprove of the president."

"Legal Precedent." Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: if Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas had to resign for taking big gifts from buddies with business before the court -- And Fortas did -- so should Clarence Thomas. (See also yesterday's Commentariat.) ...

Whoop-dee damn-doo -- Clarence Thomas, responding to the news the Senate had confirmed his nomination to the Supreme Court. He was in the bathtub at the time

Mere confirmation, even to the Supreme Court, seemed pitifully small compensation for what had been done to me. -- Clarence Thomas

... The Long Dong Silver Connection. Attaturk in Firedoglake: "But, if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Clarence Thomas it is that he is in no way affected with a sense of personal shame ... just grievances. The person who was until just recently leading the call to investigate Thomas’ ethical shortcomings? Anthony Weiner." ...

... Digby: "Bush vs Gore was a watershed -- the idea that the Court was above crass political considerations (even if it often wasn't) was fully abandoned and there's no going back. (Recall that Chief Justice Roberts worked on the Bush recount.)  I see no chance that Clarence Thomas will resign over this. (If they find out that he's been tweeting pictures of his John Thomas, however, then all bets are off.)

Ezra Klein on a really bad business tax cut that could pass: "a holiday for the profit that corporations are storing overseas.... Corporations get addicted to these holidays. They got one in 2004 (the American Jobs Creation Act -- which didn't create a single job), and now they’re pumping billions into getting another in 2012. Corporations are holding more money overseas than they otherwise would because they don’t want to bring that cash home in 2011 and pay taxes on it only to see a holiday pass in 2012. And if we pass two of these holidays in under a decade, corporations will never bring money home unless they’re given another holiday to do so...." ...

... David Koecieniewski of the New York Times writes an extended article on the effects of the farcically-dubbed 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, a new version of which businesses are hyping today.

For every dollar that was brought back, there were zero cents used for additional capital expenditures, research and development, or hiring and employees wages. -- Prof. Kristin J. Forbes, a member of Bush’s council of economic advisers who headed a study of the effects of the 2004 law ...

... CW News Flash: cutting business taxes increases the deficit, CEO compensation & occasionally shareholder dividends. It creates no jobs or other business improvements. Why? Because the Congress writes these laws so businesses can do what they want to with their tax break bonanzas. This particular bonanza reduces the corporate rate on profits from 35 percent to a little more than 5 percent. I think I'll ask Congress to cut my taxes by 85 percent, too, since -- like those generous corporations -- I too am willing to spend my own windfall tax break however I want.

Where Insider Trading Is Legal -- and Incredibly Profitable. Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "For Reid Hoffman, the chairman of LinkedIn, it took less than 30 minutes to earn himself an extra $200 million.... The blockbuster debut of LinkedIn ... provides a window into how a small group — bankers and lawyers, employees who get in on the ground floor, early investors — is taking a hefty cut at each twist in the road from Silicon Valley start-up to Wall Street success story.... The sharp run-up after the initial public offering set off a fierce debate among observers about whether the bankers had mispriced it and left billions on the table for their clients to pocket. But the pent-up demand for what was perceived as a hot technology stock set the stage for easy money to be made almost regardless of the offering price. Naturally, Wall Street is enjoying a windfall."

Why would a nonpartisan research company -- like McKinsey -- release questionable survey results undermining the Affordable Care Act? Rick Unger of Forbes has the answer: it's the money, stupid. The controversial survey -- which, especially because its results ran contrary to other survey findings & fit into the conservative ACA-bashing meme -- was really nothing more than a pitch to remind companies to use McKinsey services to help them evaluate their health benefits plans as the ACA kicks in. 

Right Wing World *

Jon Stewart tells Chris Wallace Fox "News" viewers "are the most consistently misinformed media viewers":

... Here's the full interview:

... Worse than Brainless. Steve Benen: "The quantifiable evidence is overwhelming.... The problem is actually getting worse.... In some cases, regular Fox News viewers would have done better, statistically speaking, if they had received no news at all and simply guessed whether the claims about current events were accurate." ...

... BUT BooMan says it's so wrong to blame Fox "News." Fox viewers were stupid, he asserts, before they tuned in Fox. ...

... Greg Sargent on the Wallace/Stewart exchange: "... there’s plenty of evidence that Fox News does deliberately slant its news coverage." Sargent lays out some of the evidence.

Bachmann Exposes Obama's Diabolical Capitalistic Medicare Plot." Steve Stromberg of the Washington Post: "The latest is Bachmann’s allegation that President Obama secretly wants Medicare to go broke so that — I’m not making this up — he can force senior citizens onto 'Obamacare.' ... In Bachmann’s mind, Obama might have a secret desire to move seniors onto a premium-support program. But in reality, her GOP colleagues have an overt one [the Ryan/Republican budget bill]. Bachmann’s speculation isn’t just hypocritical. It’s also illogical if you believe Obama is, as she has claimed, taking the country on 'the final leap to socialism.' ... Bachmann is accusing the president of wanting to take seniors off socialized medicine and push them into the private market he has set up for everyone else."

* Where Michele Bachmann is the fact-checker.

Local News

Idaho State Sen. John McGee, in uniform. Photo by Ada County Sheriff's Department.Idaho Statesman: "State Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, was arrested overnight by Ada County Sheriff's deputies for misdemeanor drunken driving and felony grand theft.... McGee began drinking at a golf course at about 10 p.m. Saturday night. At some point, McGee left the clubhouse on foot and walked for a distance, eventually coming upon a parked Ford Excursion with a 20-foot travel trailer near the Muir Woods Subdivision in Southeast Boise. The keys were in the vehicle and McGee drove away...." CW: legislator driving drunk? Not exactly unique. Grand theft auto? That's a new one on me.

News Ledes

Michelle Obama speaks in Soweto, South Africa:

     ... Here is the transcript of her remarks.

New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there. The court ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages. Now, the handful of women who brought the lawsuit may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle. The justices divided 5-4 on another aspect of the ruling...." ...

... ALSO, New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a lawsuit that had sought to force major electric utilities to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions without waiting for federal regulators to act." ...

... AND, AP (via NYT): "A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday refused to require states to provide lawyers for poor people in civil cases involving incarceration but did order state officials to ensure that those hearings are "fundamentally fair" to the person facing possible detention. The justices voted 5-4 along ideological lines to uphold the appeal of Michael Turner, a South Carolina man sent to jail for up to 12 months after he insisted he could not afford his child support payments. Turner had no lawyer, and claimed all people facing jail time have a constitutional right to an attorney. Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the opinion for the court's four liberal-leaning justices and Justice Anthony Kennedy, would not go that far, saying 'the Due Process Clause does not always require the provision of counsel in civil proceedings where incarceration is threatened.'"

Washington Post: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday blamed the mass protests rocking his country on 'saboteurs' and 'vandalism,' declaring in a televised speech that 'there can be no development without stability.''”

New York Times: "Europe’s finance ministers unexpectedly put off approval early Monday of the next installment of aid to debt-laden Greece, delaying the decision until July and demanding that the Greek Parliament first approve spending cuts and financial reforms that include a large-scale privatization program."

When Americans, who are serving in your country at great cost — in terms of life and treasure — hear themselves compared with occupiers, told that they are only here to advance their own interest and likened to the brutal enemies of the Afghan people, my people, in turn, are filled with confusion and grow weary of our effort here. -- U.S. Amb. Karl Eikenberry to university students in Kabul

New York Times: "The departing American ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry, lashed out at President Hamid Karzai on Sunday in a carefully calculated and candid rebuke of the Afghan leader’s increasingly inflammatory criticism of the coalition forces."

The Commentariat -- June 19

I've posted a page titled Bush Lite on Off Times Square, in which I ask readers to suggest what progressives -- or any concerned citizens -- should do about the Obama Administration's mimicry of the worst aspects of Bush/Cheney. We can't just sit here, can we?

** New York Times Editors: "The Obama administration has long been bumbling along in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to sacrificing Americans’ basic rights and liberties under the false flag of fighting terrorism. Now the Obama team seems ready to lurch even farther down that dismal road than George W. Bush did." Besides giving "agents significant new powers to search law enforcement and private databases, go through household trash or deploy surveillance teams..., the White House cares so little about providing meaningful oversight that Mr. Obama has yet to nominate a successor for Glenn Fine, the diligent Justice Department inspector general who left in January." CW: read the whole editorial. Charlie Savage's story, to which the editors referred, is here. ...

... Jack Balkin on "George W. Obama" -- how Obama is manipulating the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. ...

... Balkin gets Digby's seal of approval.

Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Inequality in the U.S. has has grown steadily since the 1970s, following a flat period after World War II. In 2008, the wealthiest 10 percent earned almost the same amount of income as the rest of the country combined.... A mounting body of economic research indicates that the rise in pay for company executives is a critical feature in the widening income gap.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on Barack Obama's "evolving" position, or whatever it is, on gay marriage. CW: Maybe you'll want to attend his $1,250-a-plate creepily-named "Gala with the Gay Community" to find out what he says he thinks about gay marriage this week, "thinking" which is, as Stolberg makes clear, a function of election metrics. ...

... Speaking of purposely garbled messages/trial balloons/politics-as-usual, Karen Garcia has an excellent post about the AARP's "position," whatever it is, on raising the Social Security age. Here's the Betty White AARP ad Garcia mentions:

Maureen Dowd does a nice job of laying out the hypocrisy of New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan and others in the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Does hate mail sound tonier when read in a British accent?

Mike McIntire of the New York Times on the "unusual and ethically-sensitive friendship" between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas & real estate magnate Harlan Crow. "Mr. Crow’s financing of the museum, [a multimillion-dollar project in Thomas' hometown which Thomas appears to have initiated,] his largest such act of generosity, previously unreported, raises the sharpest questions yet — both about Justice Thomas’s extrajudicial activities and about the extent to which the justices should remain exempt from the code of conduct for federal judges.

Wary of "Wars of Choice." Thom Shanker & Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, as he prepared to depart the government for the second time, said in an interview on Friday that the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made him far more wary about unleashing the might of the American armed forces."

Here's Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) speaking at the Netroots Nation conference yesteday:

      ... More Networks Nation news & links to videos at their site. ...

... Bill Moyers on the Constitution:

     ... More video on the Networks Nation conference, including former Sen. Russ Feingold's remarks, & related gatherings here at The Uptake.

News Ledes

AP: "In another blow to Washington's relationship with Pakistan, U.S. officials say Pakistan failed another test to prove it could be trusted to go after American enemies on its soil by intentionally or inadvertently tipping off militants at two more bomb-building factories in its tribal areas, giving the suspected terrorists time to flee." ...

... The Hill: "House appropriators have proposed slapping new restrictions on the aid that Washington will send to Pakistan next year amid a chill in relations following the killing of Osama bin Laden."

New York Times: "Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, whose jovial onstage manner, soul-rooted style and brotherly relationship with Mr. Springsteen made him one of rock’s most beloved sidemen, died on Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 69." Here's a Rolling Stone obituary.

The Commentariat -- June 18

President Obama's weekly address celebrates fathers:

     ... AP story by Erica Werner here.

I've posted an Open Thread for today's Off Times Square. With the Anthony Weiner story behind us, here's hoping this site will no longer be a magnet for predators. I'll be on the road, so I may not be available to immediately control the comments. If a serious problem develops, I'll just have to shut down comments altogether till I get where I'm going & can more closely monitor the comments pages.

"It Isn't 'Hostilities' if the People You're Bombing Don't Shoot Back." Amy Davidson of the New Yorker joins the crowd of opinionators who can read English sentences and are appalled at the Obama Administration's twisted claims that the Libyan conflict is not subject to the War Powers Resolution. ...

... Ha! Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization.... Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to 'hostilities.' Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20. But Mr. Obama decided instead to adopt the legal analysis of several other senior members of his legal team — including the White House counsel, Robert Bauer, and the State Department legal adviser, Harold H. Koh — who argued that the United States military’s activities fell short of 'hostilities.'”

Say What? John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tells Netroots Nation that a well-known 1996 questionnaire in which Barack Obama said he favored gay marriage "was actually filled out by someone else, not the President." With video of Pfeiffer making his unbelievable assertion and this reproduction of the "fake" questionnaire:

     ... CW: See Answer to Question 6. That sure does look like Obama's signature to me. ...

... Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Liberal activists gave White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer a chilly reception on Friday at an online political conference as he tried to defend the Obama administration’s policies on gay marriage, Afghanistan and tax cuts. To heckling and some loud boos, Pfeiffer drove home two themes to activists attending the Netroots Nation conference: change is hard and installing a Republican in the White House would be much worse than reelecting President Obama." ...

... Here's a related report from Michael O'Brien of The Hill.

Associated Press: it's suddenly pretty difficult to tell where the AARP stands on Social Security, which comes as a shock to other advocates for the elderly.

Just Plain Mean. Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: The "last extension of unemployment benefits — typically received in weeks 80 through 99 of unemployment — is paid for entirely with federal money and does not affect state budgets. But because of ideological opposition and other legislative priorities, Arizona and a handful of other states, like Wisconsin and Alaska, have not" made a minor change to their existing statutes which would "keep the program going."

David Carr & John Schwartz of the New York Times: "For the last two years, David Protess, a renowned journalist and professor who spent three decades fighting to prove the innocence of others, has been locked in a battle to do the same for himself. It hasn't gone as well." Here's an outline of the cases of those freed because of the work of Protess & his students.

CW: I have not been covering the controversy over a study, released by the ostensibly nonpartisan McKinsey and Co., mostly because the details of what's wrong with the study are (a) a deep, dark secret and (b) get pretty much into the weeds. (I did write a comment to Tom Friedman, who relied on the McKinsey report, to the effect that his commentary was intrinsically flawed, inasmuch as the study on which he based his analysis was subject to serious question. Not surprisingly, my comment was buried on a back page.) Anyway, Steve Benen demonstrates why the McKinsey controversy matters: conservatives who know the study results may be bogus are using it anyway to "prove" the Affordable Care Act is a bad deal.

News Ledes

Speaker John Boehner & President Obama on the course at Andrews AFB today. AP photo via ABC News.

President Obama, Speaker Boehner, Vice President Biden & Ohio Gov. John Kasich will play golf today. Washington Post story here. Update: here's the play-by-play from Politico.

New York Times: "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan launched a broadside against his coalition allies on Saturday, saying the motives behind their presence were suspect and even complaining that their weaponry is polluting his country." Guardian: "The US and other foreign powers are engaged in preliminary talks with the Taliban about a possible settlement to the war in Afghanistan, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has said. It is the first official confirmation of US involvement in such negotiations." Story has been updated. ...

... Guardian: "The Afghan government will struggle to pay its bills 'within a month' after the International Monetary Fund rejected proposals for resolving the Kabul Bank scandal, western officials have warned."

Reuters: "Oracle is seeking between $1.4 billion and $6.1 billion in a patent lawsuit against Google over the lucrative smartphone market, according to a court filing.Oracle sued Google last year, claiming the Web search company's Android mobile operating technology infringes upon Oracle's Java patents."